Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Marina Abramovic and Ulay

"Abramovic and Ulay collaborated for several years for an opening at the Galleria Comunale D'arte Moderna, Bologna. they stood naked, facing each other in the main entrance, forcing the public entering the museum to choose which naked body to face--male or female --as they squeezed through the small space between the two artists. As each member of the public passed awkwardly between the two naked bodies they were filmed by a hidden camera and saw themselives being projected on monitors placed nearby. text on the wall by the monitors read: "Imponderable/such imponderable human factors/as one's aesthetic sensitivity/the overrinding importance/of imponderables in determining/human contact" The piece forced people to confront their attitudes and feelings about gender and sexuality, and the body of the "other" through a direct physical intervention in the architecture of both a building and a social event. They had planned to be the museum's "living door" for three hours but after 90 minutes their performance was stopped by the police."